Perhaps something like a molten salt solar concentrator. The molten salt would retain a lot of heat and would permit the facility to continue operating when the sun wasn't shining.

Most of the people I know in US have to pay some portion of their health insurance premium. In addition, the average family in the US spends about $3000 per year for out of pocket medical expenses in excess of their insurance premiums. Depending on the plan you are in, if you have to receive surgery the out of pocket expenses can end up being substantially higher than that. And because of the fragmented in plan/ out of plan nature of most people's insurance coverage, it's not unusual for people to end up receiving unexpectedly large bills for services they thought were covered in plan.

India has a working commercial thorium reactor?

I grew up in town where most people worked some sort of blue collar job, and I recall plenty of big coffee drinkers. I spent a summer working in a steel mill and it wasn't unusual to see guys arriving with large thermoses of coffee. Those that didn't bring it to work could purchase it from vending machines in the break rooms. A couple of cups before work, a couple during breaks or lunch, and by the end of the day they had had at least four cups of coffee.

Amen. I'm 57, and ever since I was a teenager, which was considerably before the advent of the internet, I've been hearing about older people being more susceptible to con men. Con men have been around a lot longer than the internet and old folks with savings have always been a favorite target.

Here's a CBO report on illegal immigrants and their effect on taxes. While illegal immigrants do use services, they seem to pay quite a bit in taxes, too. They pay sales taxes and by renting property they are indirectly paying real estate taxes that fund local governments and schools.

There were three images. The third one showed education levels.

Source, please.

Apparently you are not the target market that this is being considered for. Often times solutions are not a good fit for many, but still work for enough people that they are worth marketing. For some people a subcompact car is totally inadequate, for others it's more than enough. Just because you have a need for more than 10kW doesn't mean that this isn't a good solution for millions of others. Many of us do not have air conditioning, electric stoves, electric dryers, or massive flat screened TVs. Our needs are considerably less than yours. I live in a household of 3 people that used 296 kWH of electricity in October. Two of us work from home. My immediate neighbors are probably not using much more electricity than we are. I don't see why a 10 kWH battery couldn't supply us with several hours of emergency power. Why are you so dismissive of a solution that would be perfectly adequate for many others?

Agreed. And not just their first or last name. When it's named after a president it should use the full name. It would be awesome to hear weather reports saying something along the lines of "People are fleeing inland as Barack Obama is on track to deliver a devastating blow to Mississippi."

While Wisconsin isn't Mississippi, in 2006 its voters approved an amendment to its constitution that banned same sex marriage. I don't know if electing a lesbian senator can be used as a proxy indicator that attitudes on gay marriage have shifted in Wisconsin, but it does indicate that the public in Wisconsin is feeling more comfortable towards gays and lesbians.

A third party isn't going to be viable nationally until it has a strong local base. If it can't get enough votes to get local officials elected it's unlikely to be able to get votes for its presidential candidates. Local office holders can be an incredibly valuable resource for a national campaign. When people's mayors, town council members, country executives and the like are seen to be members of a third party it makes that party a much more attractive option. Parties like the Greens and the Libertarians need to build locally before they can hope to have an impact on national races. And building locally doesn't just mean having members in a locale, it means having an active party organization that can get people elected to local offices.

Since I know nothing about California's state finances, I'm curious, what percentage of the state's employees are receiving 100k+ pensions? Are the $100k+ pensions outliers used to incite people or are they typical of what retirees receive? What is the median California state employee's retirement benefit?

Law school prepares you for being a lawyer like medical school prepares you for being a doctor. Just as doctors have to work as a resident in a specialty before they really know how to practice medicine, lawyers learn how to practice law in their first job. Before someone can open their own firm and solicit clients they need to first work for another lawyer to learn more than the theory they teach in law schools.

An alternative scenario is that Mann calls their bluff, they do discovery and can't find any fraudulent material or bad research methods, they lose the suit and are forced to pay significant damages and to a publicly admit they were wrong. It's called eating your words.